I used to hate birthdays, but now that I’ve started to acknowledge them a day to eat everything, I think I like them now. I went to bed at 2 AM disappointed because no one wished me a happy birthday, but when I woke up the next morning, I had dozens of missed calls, voicemails, text messages, and Facebook alerts. I went to bed thinking the day would suck, but woke up thinking it was promising.

I started off the day with homemade scrambled scallion and asiago eggs, turkey bacon, orange juice, and a Starbucks coffee. (I don’t really like bacon, but I figured it’d be nice to have with eggs.) I opened all of the windows so there was a beautiful breeze flowing through the apartment. The air in the apartment is usually thick, but the mix of the fresh air from outside and the smells from breakfast lingered for hours. It felt like a refreshing summer day in the suburbs.

I made my way down to Dean and Deluca in Soho to pick up a macaron and an iced coffee. I’ve been dying to try their coffee, but I don’t know how to make my own coffee, so I never bought it to avoid putting my own sugar in. I figured today was the day to try it. I just bought a coffee macaron from the bakery area and I glanced up at the menu – iced mocha, iced this, iced that, Strawberry Italian Soda. It has been years since I’ve had Italian soda, but it so delicious that I instantly ordered one. I turned around and my friend surprised me with a red velvet birthday cake.

Of course I picked Cafetasia for my birthday dinner. It is my favorite Thai restaurant and one of my favorite restaurants of all time. The food is always delicious. The service is always fast and excellent. The atmosphere is trendy and awesome. Even if I could, I wouldn’t change anything about Cafetasia.

We ordered Mango Batita drinks, which were described as a mango and pineapple drink. I expected them to be yellow, or even orange, but they came out green. Weird. (On second thought, it is green because it is mixed with blue liquor.) They didn’t taste too strong, but half way through the drink, I was drunk. I quickly drank the rest as I saw the appetizers coming over, so I turned into drunken eating mode and just devoured it all. It was the best food at Cafetasia that I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was because the chef was especially amazing that night or because everything tastes better when drunk. Leaning towards the latter, but I devoured BBQ beef skewers, chicken satay and toast, gyoza, extra spicy chicken basil udon, and then some of my friend’s pad thai.

We didn’t eat the cake until later that night, but it took us two minutes from start to finish. It was the most dense and delicious cake I have ever had. It was such a rich and dark red velvet. I seriously wonder what Dean and Deluca can’t do. When it comes to food, especially bakery treats, they are truly the best of the best.

I laid down for a bit to recover from dinner and the cake and then made hard lemonade with Belvedere. Turned on Iron Man, and passed out somewhere within the next hour. I didn’t expect my ship to sink that quickly, but it was the perfect end to my birthday.

After the MTA changed the bus schedule, my best friend and I decided to walk down to 14th Street instead of scouring for the nearest bus stop that was in service. A few blocks down, we noticed these perfectly stacked citruses and had to take photos. (His turned out much better and less slanted.) We’ve noticed this place multiple times, but we’ve never given it the time of day to walk inside. It’s not much larger than a bodega, and it doesn’t seem to be that well stocked from the outside. I figured it was just another, run-of-the-mill, low-grade local grocery stores. But I’ve never been as wrong in my life – the place is overstocked and gives cheap a new definition.

We cook multiple times a week and use chicken as our primary meat, so we thought to check out the chicken section: $1.99 a pound. I have never seen a price that low in the city. We usually pay $4.99 with our membership discount to Food Emporium. Whole Foods runs the same when it is on sale. But we were staring at two and a half pounds of chicken for five dollars! We both sent texts to our mothers asking if $1.99 a pound for chicken was decent, underpriced, or just right. My mom replies saying that it normal. So does his mom. How on earth did we ever possibly think that $5 a pound for chicken was reasonable?

I also found Russian dressing, which I’ve been hunting throughout the city for ever since my mom gave me the recipe to one of my favorite chicken dishes that she makes. I’m planning on making that sometime this week. I just question if the quality is decent, but half the time our chicken is supplemented by NYU dining, so it isn’t like we are used to the creme de la creme of chicken. I forgot the name of the place, but it is a great find and I look forward to shopping there soon.